I'm an associate editor at Forbes, part of the team responsible for our signature issues: The Forbes 400, Global Billionaires and America's Richest Families. As a writer, I cover these wealthy business builders as well as other entrepreneurs. Before Forbes, I also reported on entrepreneurs for Inc. magazine, and attended Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Investors should take a moment for a deep breath. Now that the House has followed the Senate in passing the fiscal cliff deal, President Obama will soon make it law. “Everybody worked very hard on this,” Obama said in nationally televised remarks after the vote. “Under this law 98% of Americans, and 97% of small businesses will not see their income taxes go up.”

Obama’s comments concluded a marathon 48 hours in Washington, D.C., in which the odds of a completed deal were greatly in flux. At the end, politicians managed to create a bill that does some good, but perilously delays any solution to many of the largest issues confronting the U.S. All in all, the legislation passed by a healthy margin in the House, by 50 extra votes that included ballots by House Speaker John Boehner and former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

Here is what the bill does:

For American families with income more than $450,000 and individuals making more than $400,000, tax rates increase to Clinton Administration levels. Below those wage levels, income taxes will remain unchanged. (Basically, 98% of Bush Tax Cuts will become permanent. Under Bush, the breaks expired after a decade.)

The wealthiest, those making $450,000 or more, will pay 20% on capital gains and dividends, plus the 3.8% that is being called the Medicare Tax. Everyone else will pay 15%. Estate tax will be 40% for the wealthy.

Several tax breaks for middle class and lower income Americans were extended for five years: the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

The Pease Limitation will reduce the total amount of your allowable itemized deductions by 3% of the amount by which your income exceeds certain levels: a $300,000 threshold for married couples and $250,000 for single fillers.

The bill adds $4 trillion to the U.S. deficit over the next decade, according to the CBO.

Tax increases will bring in around $600 billion over the next decade. Significantly, this is less than President Obama originally wanted ($1.4 trillion) and even less than House Speaker John Boehner proposed ($1 trillion).

Raises taxes on 77% of Americans. Joe Average will pay about $700 more in taxes. Mostly this is because the payroll tax holiday expires.

The bill does not accomplish everything–not by a long shot. By striking only an eleventh-hour decision, lawmakers have set up a continual series of debates and fights in coming weeks that will inevitably roil markets. “This law is just one step in broader effort,” Obama said. The president had attempted to address other prickly issues, but found ”there was just not enough time or support for that in a lame duck session of Congress.”

Here is what the bill does not do:

Extend the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling. The U.S. reached its statutorily mandated debt level on New Year’s Eve day. The Treasury Department will now use a series of creative accounting measures to keep the nation operating. It will buy us around two months. After that, the nation faces a governmental shutdown.

Decide what to do about the massive budget cuts to defense spending and other government programs. The sequester will be delayed for two months.

That’s a list that will make investors uneasy. For this reason, it’s not a good idea to revel too greatly over this legislation. The joy may be short lived. “The latest agreement removes a good portion of the immediate fiscal tightening threat, but does nothing to resolve these longer-term challenges,” says Citi economist Steven Wieting. “The next potential showdown over the debt ceiling and sequestration may revive such efforts.”

For now, investors are content with not looking too far down the road. Relief that a deal did finally surface was immediately apparent in the early morning rally, which began in overseas markets well before U.S. trading started. The Euro Stoxx 50 climbed by 2.6% to 2,704.61. The FTSE 100 added 2.3% to 6,035.90. In Asia, the Shanghai composite went up 1.3% to 2,269.13, and the Hang Sheng index increased 2.9% to 23,311.98.

U.S. markets followed a similar trajectory, opening sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 1.4% to 13,286.18—a triple-digit gain of 182 points. The Nasdaq composite rose 2.6% to 3,086.46, and the S&P 500 added 1.9% to 1,452.81.

When it does come time to look ahead, keep an eye on bellwether stocks, companies with a large, expansive business. These are companies like AppleApple and FedExFedEx. Also monitor whether investors flee to safe stocks like Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCoPepsiCo and Walt Disney, the companies most capable of surviving troubled economic times. If a rally extends beyond these names, it’ll suggest a broad surge, an extension of optimism from earlier this week when the Dow experienced an triple-digit rally.

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Mr. Brown, I wish I could share your optimism that spending cuts are coming with the debt ceiling debates.

As a full-scale conservative, I’m forced to conclude that (sadly) Republicans will surrender once again. There isn’t one politician in Washington D.C. that wants to cut spending by any amount that a reasonable person would claim is the least bit significant.

Ok to call people getting assistance burdensome is a little harsh. There are a lot of rules and regulation. For one if some one is currently on aid if they have a child they do not recieve any extra. The baby does not count!!! Second u can only recieve welfare for 40 months and u have to participate as in job search, community service, or schooling, as a single parent it is 32 hours a week in a two parent house its 35. Dont participate, get cut off easy as that. Now my third point is its there for people as a safety net, i understandthere are some that find loopholes and abuse the system but you cannot control if you are going to lose your job. My daughter was four months old when my husband lost his job and it took two years for him to find stable employment again as i have been chronicly sick

Hearing Obama make reference to entitlement reform late last night, I get the sense that behind the scenes there is some agreement to get something done on this front. That needs to happen and be meaningful, because like this tax reform, I don’t think you get any more trips to the trough. But that’s good. Perhaps more important than the substance of what was done, is the fact that tax brackets, the AMT fix, and the estate tax are now permanent (or at least don’t expire) and it’s the first time in a very long time we can say that.

Perhaps best case is a piece meal mini grand bargain, which much to the chagrin of the GOP would be a home run for Obama. The hard part will be in his own party after “only” getting $600 billion of revenue. Maybe he gets another trip to the revenue trough through broadening the tax base (mortgage tax deduction, etc.), but there are real risks there if the GOP goes ballistic and the whole thing becomes a mess.